A/n: thank you giddygirlie! For pointing out some very silly mistakes on my part. Well, just forgive me k, coz I got carried away with the plot a bit… I've made some corrections in the previous chapters. No major changes, so no worries...

Now without further ado…

I give you- the final installment of An Allegory.

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Chapter Three

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Recap:

"I'm – trying – to - apparate - "

POOF!

She let out the breath she had been holding. "It doesn't work."

"Maybe we should just ask him how to leave…" she pondered.

"Maybe we should just ask him where we are." countered Ron.

Since a mutual agreement was now in order, - "Joe!" they cried together.

But Joe Blind wasn't there anymore.

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They found him standing in a patch of moonlight, on an open terrace, softly humming to himself.

"Joe!"

"Ah! The lovers." He cried happily, turning to face them.

"Really!-" said Hermione, flushing.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" asked Ron a bit harshly, stubbornly refusing to hide his annoyance.

Joe, however, didn't quite cotton on to Ron's apparent discomfort and asked lightly, "tell me, Mr. Weasley, what do you see above you?" he gestured leisurely to the sky.

Ron just seemed to get angrier.

"You- tell- me, Mr. Blind. Tell me just where under the bloody sky are we?"

"Why, you seem upset Mr. Weasley!"

Ron was about to answer tartly when Hermione stopped him with an effort and sighing, as she rubbed her temple, turned to Joe.

"You see, he's just… a little panicked."

"Oh! Oh dear!" exclaimed Joe, raising a hand to his heart, a look of deep anxiety on his wrinkled face. "He must be spooked! Miss Granger- you-you didn't step into the Big Red Room did you?"

"The big red room?"

"That's where she lives!" Joe breathed in a conspiring whisper.

"Who lives?"

"The ghost of Pretty Panic!"

Ron made an odd strangled noise in his throat. He then jammed his balled fists into his pockets and walked away to stand by the railing, his back to them.

"She often haunts the castle at night." Joe continued "I suppose she got to your lover quite quickly."

"TSH – he's not my lover!"

Joe looked taken aback. "Surely, then you expect him to be…"

"That's not the point!- Joe, could you please, tell us where we are?"

Joe looked queerly at her. Then, he smiled…in a paternal sort of way.

"Tell me Miss Granger," he pointed to the sky, "what do you see?"

Hermione looked up into the darkening heavens. "Well… stars, I suppose…"

Joe nodded. "But not quite….you see, a long time ago, my mistress fell in love with a young man. I wouldn't know the details now, because she would only share them with her friend Sylvia. Sylvia Secret. The thing is, she had to go away for a few days… so she gave Miss Secret a letter. She told Sylvia not to open it and to give it to her lover when he would come at night…but we are all only human after all, and I suppose curiosity got the better of her- she opened the letter …and everything came spilling out."

Joe sighed dramatically before continuing "Of course, Sylvia was embarrassed. She hid herself away after that…still around here somewhere, I'd like to think. Though, if you'd want to meet her, you should probably ask the chambermaid Miss Shylin. But that young lady is just as hard to find, I'm afraid- stays away from visitors, she does. Funny creature-"

Joe stopped to ponder.

"What was in the letter Joe?" asked Hermione softly.

"The letter? Why, kisses…" he answered, and smiled as he raised his face skyward "millions and millions of'em there were in the letter…and they floated up …and up…andup - and there they are now-" he pointed to the stars.

Ron swore loudly.

"Listen", he said in a dangerously low voice, as he turned around and walked toward them. He tripped over his feet in his anguish, and steadied himself again before continuing venomously "I- don't- like- you."

Joe looked astounded.

"Ron!-" shouted Hermione, coming to stand quickly between the two men. "Stop it!"

Ron apparently, had other ideas.

"And you wouldn't like me either- when I'm really mad-"

"Come on!" cried Hermione, now pushing Ron backwards and hastily apologizing to Joe.

"Shall we just go inside somewhere and talk about this?" she suggested.

After a very pregnant pause, Ron grunted.

"Yes, yes of course" said Joe, "follow me then-"

And he began to retrace his steps into the castle.

"He's mad," said Ron to Hermione. "And so are you- for staying to listen to that gibberish while we should just be trying to get back to Hogwarts!"

"Shush Ron! He'll hear you! And I really don't think he means any harm…"

"Harm? Of course not! Only, I think if he'd go on being so very nice, we're going to be stuck here for the rest of our damn lives!"

"You're panicking again! You can't see it, can you Ron?"

"See what exactly? That we're just completely, utterly and stupidly lost? Yeah, I see that, I can- bloody- see only that!"

"Oh shut up! If you'll only listen Ron-"

"You're always telling me to do that, but guess what? It NEVER works!"

She poked him in the shoulder. Hard.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Shut up!" she ordered "and just listen for a minute!"

"Ok- sheesh –it's not like you had to hit me for that! …Could've just asked nicely."

"Right. Now I want you, to act nice to Joe."

"No- bloody –way! He's a nutter."

Hermione fixed him with a beady eye.

"Do you want to get out of here or not?-" she began passionately.

"Ok.ok. Alright…." Ron quickly conceded, holding up his hands in defeat, "I'll try…. to just shut up."

"yes." sighed Hermione "and promise me you won't say anything rude or act rude or do anything to upset him while I'm working on this?"

Ron looked unsure.

"Well?"

"Alright" he agreed finally, albeit rather grudgingly.

"He's a sweet guy, really" said Hermione.

Ron did a double take. "Hold on- you're not going to seduce him are you?"

"RON!"

"What-what happened? What is it Miss Granger?" came Joe's anxious voice from a few yards ahead of them.

"Nothing" Ron called back. "She just got- umm, scared – I think. It's fine. We're fine." He carefully avoided Hermione's death glare.

"Oh dear!" said Joe "I lost count! Could you tell me where we're standing?"

Ron looked around him….they were in another corridor.

The flickering light from an overhead lantern drew his attention to a painting on the stone wall.

He looked more closely at it, gasped and then whistled, long and low…

"Oh, I know!" cried Joe, with an almost boyish grin breaking out over his wrinkled face. "Yes, young men seem to find it particularly striking. You see the painting, Miss Granger? It's my mistress. Painted the very day she was born!"

Ron chuckled. "But that's impossible"

"Yes, I've heard it's a marvelous painting- I beg your pardon, what did you just say?"

"I said that's impossible" repeated Ron, gazing in outright wonder at the still painting before his eyes- that of a shy, beautiful woman, with very long hair, standing on an upturned shell that was floating in a serene, navy sea…

Below the painting was a golden plate, engraved with the words 'The Birth Of Venus – By Sandro Botticelli'

"She's definitely nota baby…" Ron remarked "…and she's completely starkers!"

"Honestly Ron!" said Hermione, whose cheeks were rather rosy. However, she continued to bravely examine the work of art.

"I mean, how could that be painted the same day she was born? Or you mean to say she was born that way?" asked Ron, obviously very confused.

"Young man, you do ask the silliest questions!" laughed Joe "of course the mistress was born that way!"

Ron stared at the man, and then gave Hermione an I-told-you-so look, which she ignored.

"Joe," she asked somewhat breathlessly, "how- how old are you?"

"Funny you should ask but, I'm seventeen."

"I beg your pardon!" Ron said, his brows rising up to disappear in his hair.

"I'm seventeen." Repeated Joe impassively "and so is my dog Mad, come to think of it…"

"Of course!" cried Hermione, looking suddenly very bright and cheerful.

Curiously, Ron had a very bad itch in his palm.

"Of course you're seventeen!" Hermione laughed, "and so is Mrs. Hope, Miss Fantasy… Brutus, Mr. brown, er, Miss Secret, …Shylin- um- Will, even the horses- beauty and promise!- seventeen!"

"Yes. You're quite right Miss Granger." Agreed Joe, smiling politely at her, wondering what it was he had said, that pleased her so.

Hermione turned and beamed at Ron.

"So I guess you finally know how to get us out of here," he said expressionlessly.

"No."

He gaped. "Then what can you possibly be so happy about?"

Hermione just grinned very foolishly and hugged him. "I can't believe it!" she cried.

Ron sighed and mumbled "I hate this part-" Hermione hastily drew away in his arms, but he held her back- "no, not that part-" he reassured her, ears turning slightly red.

Her uncertainty soon melted away and he said, "I meant, I hate the part where…I don't get it."

She smiled up at him adoringly.

"Ron don't you see?" she spoke softly, as a teacher would speak to a child on the first day of school, "They're all here-blindness, madness, hope and fantasy…" she made sure to stress every word "…trust, hurt, secrets and shyness, panic, beauty, will and promise- do you see now?"

She cupped his face in her hands and spoke slowly, gently… "Ron, I'm here! You are here!"

She pulled him down again, for a tender hug. "I may not know how to get out of here Ron," she whispered into his ear, "but I finally know where we are!"

Ron's head swam with the sudden dawn of revelation.

"wicked!" he whispered, and feeling a tad bit odd voicing his next few words- "we're in love…"

Then he felt it- a WHACK! at the back of his head…and before he knew it, he was slipping fast into sweet oblivion.

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A/n: I told you I like metaphors. Ok, just think about this-

if you could house love somewhere, where would it be?

Options-

a) a cave by the sea

b) a five star hotel in the city

c) a castle in the countryside

a cookie for you if you guessed what I chose:)

my sister ( elixirgurl ) read this story first. After she figured it out, she read it again & said…'hey, there's so much little detail here I missed in the first reading!'

I suppose that's what happens when its – well, An Allegory.

And if you've come this far, I don't think it'll hurt to review. I've worked pretty hard on this and I would greatly appreciate hearing from you. so tell me what you think!

P.s : The Birth Of Venus – By Sandro Botticelli, is a real painting, based on a greek myth. It tells of how Venus, the Godess of love & beauty, was born in the sea & blown to shore on a shell by the wind. Botticelli was one of the greatest Florentine painters and an interpreter of Neo-Platonism, which is a theory that combined ancient mythology, Greek philosophy & Christianity to explain God, beauty & truth.